Prayer request for student

We learned that one of my 8th grade students at Our Mother of Sorrows ran away from home on Friday. She hasn't been at school for the last two weeks (mom said she couldn't get her to go), and the suspicion is that she's pregnant and doesn't want mom to find out. The strange part is that she has called home several times to assure her mother that she is safe. Please be praying for "Fitimah" and her family, as well as her classmates.

Free curly fries Monday!

Arby's is the official sponsor of Matt Kenseth (Nascar driver). When he wins a race, the whole country can get free curly fries on Monday! He won yesterday, so if you print off the race results and bring them into any Arby's, you get free curly fries!

Here's the deal from Arby's website.

And here are the results to print off.

Snowcub

Last night Sarah and I built a snowcub--a snowman in the shape of a bear, or specifically, a Cub. I wrote a "GO CUBS" in the snow as well. We built it on a grassy knoll next to her apartment building in Center City. It was my first snow creation of the year! I didn't realize how much I missed it!


Today I woke up and immediately checked the web for school closing information. We had an inch of snow last night as well as a bunch of rain, and I was hoping that the rain would turn into ice and force kind-hearted superintendents to save students the danger of traveling to learn. Unfortunately, schools are in session.

I finished my first class of my Walden University Masters Program in Literacy yesterday! Class #2 starts today. Not too much of a break. But that's what you get when you want a masters degree in 20 months!

It's my sister Maria's 22nd birthday today! Woo hoo!!! She just got a job from Holland Public teaching Spanish a little over a week ago. She'll do great at it, and I'm very excited for her. =)

Wrestling with Honky Tonk

Thanks again to Craigslist's free stuff website, I got several free tickets to a semi-pro wrestling event in South Philly. Sarah and I went once last year, and we had a good time. To be honest, I don't think we would have gone again this soon by ourselves, but we had two new friends from Liberti who we wanted to hang out with. So, we invited Nate and Kristin to join us. We had a great time! Nate especially enjoyed the event, perhaps because he grew up as a WWF fan.

The showcase match included the Honky Tonk Man. Honky Tonk, I have since learned, was once a big-time wrestler for the former WWF! Nate remembered watching him when he was a 10-year-old (Nate is 27 today). He smashed a guitar on somebody near the end of the match!


I'd say the only bad part about the event was it led to greater intensity between Sarah and me, as shown here:

The Sorges come to Philly!

What a treat! Sarah and I had the esteemed privilege of hosting Jim and Teresa Sorge-VanDenend Thursday through Saturday this past week. We had a delightful time with them! Teresa had an audition and interview at Temple's masters education dance program. She had only positive things to say about the instructors ("nicer than Hope people!"), the students ("none of them were divas"), and the campus ("it's not so bad here!"). As expected, she was pretty nervous before the big day, and we all were privy to her presentation--complete with a DVD her new husband had made for her on his Mac.

There's a spot in Philly with several massive board game pieces. We had fun posing with them!

Fortunately, Jim survived.

Classic Philly picture.

It's dark, but you can see Reese Street above us. These are our tough Philly faces. Note the lack of smiles.

Be praying for the young Sorge family. Teresa is taking the GREs on March 9, after which she will learn if Temple accepts her into the program. She's pretty excited about it, and they sounded like they would be moving to Philly this summer if she's accepted! The whole ordeal kind of came together this past week, so it's pretty last minute. I still can't believe there's a chance they would move here. Of all the cities in the country! Teresa has experience living in a big city (Chicago for a semester), but Jim is a country/small town boy. Like I told him, it's amazing what God can help you adjust to if it's where He wants you to be!

Dance party with seminarians

This past weekend, Sarah and I drove up to Princeton, NJ to visit Dan and Krista Carter. Our entertainment for the evening (besides eating some delicious homemade cookies and fried fish!) was driving to a church and being extras in a feature-length movie! One of Dan's classmates is making a movie that is based on one of Soren Kirkergard's theories. He needed a bunch of people to be in a dance club scene in the background. It was pretty fun! I felt fairly nervous before being in a movie for the first time, especially when I saw the fancy lights, cameras, and the great lengths they went through to cover all the walls in the church room. They fed us pizza and pop, as well as promised our names would appear in the credits. =)

Our first assignment was simply to dance for about 50 minutes. After a break, they needed to shoot some scenes with dialogue while we danced in the background. The DJ played a few beats of the music so we could feel the groove, then cut out so the microphones could pick up the actors' lines. It was such a strange feeling dancing to no music! In a way, it was freeing too. New party game: dancing without music.

Here are some pictures of the 2007 version Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers.



As I signed onto Blogger today, I noticed that this is my 101st post! That's over 100 in four months, so I'm averaging a little under my post a day goal.

Jim and Teresa arrive today to check out Temple University's masters program in dance. Sarah and I are SO EXCITED to show them around and hang out with them. Seth will be around for a little bit, but he's driving to Ohio with some friends to watch a big skating tournament. Should be fun!

Yesterday was Ash Wednesday, and both schools held mass. I helped lead music by playing the piano and singing. Tiffany, the kindergarten aid at Sorrows, sang a beauuuuuuuutiful version of Amazing Grace. The difficult part with it is that our cultures sometimes collide...I'm not used to playing their style, and they aren't used to mine! It all worked out, and we had some of both.

Free pancakes at IHOP today!

Until 10PM, IHOP is offering a free short stack of pancakes to everyone in celebration of Fat Tuessday! See their website for more info.

hi mom

Here are some pictures Seth took at Liberti's in-covenant retreat recently. You can see the whole set on Seth's Flickr site.


This is my Darth Maul face:


This one was made with a glowing red firelog with a 30-second exposure.



This is me talking with a guy named Nate who just moved to Philly from OREGON! His reason: a girl. *sigh* He's an awesome dude, however, and I'm excited to get to know him better and hang out with him this year.

Valentine's Day in the city of brotherly love

Last night before bed, I did a snow day dance. The weather man predicted 1-3 inches of snow along with sleet and freezing rain--an ideal combination for calling off school. I woke up this morning, checked the website, and did a happy dance: all public and Archdiocese schools closed! So beautiful.

I went into Center City for a doctor's appointment this afternoon, and I've spent a good part of the rest of the time working on my laptop in Sarah's apartment (although there was a Wendy's run for a free jr. vanilla frosty...). She's been studying hard-core for a big exam this Friday...and we're in the home stretch. I say "we" because it affects me too! I do my best to support and encourage in the time constraints, but sometimes I do better than others.

The weekend after an exam is always filled with joyous celebration. This weekend, there's a formal ball on Friday night, and we're going to go visit the Carters at Princeton on Saturday! Maybe some bowling on Sunday night too?? I don't have school Monday for President's Day! I do like this year's schedule.

Sarah just got an e-mail from Teresa Sorge saying that she and Jim are coming to visit Philly next week! Teresa is auditioning at one of the local schools for their masters program, and there's a chance the two of them would move out here in the fall! Who'd of thunk it?

Mr. Potato Head

Last night was a great example of why I enjoy my roommate Seth so much. I returned from being gone for most of the day, and I walked into our living room turned into a photography studio! He was borrowing some equipment from a fellow photographer for a job this week, and he decided to setup shop at home! So, we spent some time taking pictures of each other with props. Here are a few selections:

Yes, that's a candle on my head.

This picture was actually the first one we took. We redid the shot because the orange shirt would accent Mr. Potato Head's eyeglasses more, as well as hide my blanche white forearms. =)
Think Hope needs any more PR photos?
Sometimes these two guys are hard to tell apart. Hint: Seth is the one in the yellow.Gotta love it.

Valentine's Day Poetry...from my 5th graders

With the free time my 5th graders had this week, I said they could make valentines with Microsoft Word. Only a few took advantage of this opportunity, and here's what they wrote. (the names have been changed...spelling and grammar have NOT)

Happy Valentines Day
Roses are red voelets are blue when I
When is aw you I couldn't keep my
Eyes off of you.
LOVE YOUR DAUTHER
Fitimah
To.MOM



Happy Valentine's Day
Roses are red violets are blue
your so beautiful and you
smell good too

Your son
Jason

Manamana

Why is this so funny to me? I can't stop singing it!

A ballet and an opera...in one week?!?

Friday night Sarah and I went to my first-ever ballet, Giselle. Sarah described it as a classic, and one that she had danced as the lead in when she was in high school. I had said that we would go to a ballet as one of her Christmas presents, and it was very good to finally get to a worthy one. My favorite part was watching Sarah enjoy it. She loves the technical requirements for ballet, and she hasn't seen one since before going to Hope! Thankfully, she directed me to the synopsis before the show started....had she not done that, I would have been completely lost in the story! I wish I appreciated ballet as much as she does. Still, I was very glad that we went. And who knows? Maybe we'll take in another one next year! But probably not before. =)

60 students, several teachers, and I went to the opera Porgy and Bess this past Wednesday. The downside to the performance was that it was over 3 hours long in a dark theater. The positive side is that only a few students fell asleep--the rest watched quite well! I was very impressed with their behavior. Unfortunately, I think part of what kept their attention was the content: sexual references, drugs, swearing, and violence were all part of the plot! It wasn't an opera I would choose to watch with my students, but we didn't have much of a choice. I had a lot of fun interacting with the students, however. We could talk about things that class time doesn't allow. Overall, I was very glad I was able to go.

Spaghetti fun

This past Thursday our schools held a spaghetti dinner for students, parents, friends, and community members. The teachers and administrators cooked the spaghetti, and we served it to students for $5 a family. As I went around greeting people and enjoying their company, I felt like it was a Hope event, which is a very good thing. The whole day was so encouraging; I felt like I was a good teacher, like my students respected me, like I was using my gifts and talents well, and that I am where God wants me to be.
8th grade teacher Ericka Asaka and I donned garbage bags as aprons. Some people thought we were trying to be the California Raisins.
This is me eating with the Thomas family--Alberta, Cheyanne, and Bryan.

Rasheed and I posed for a tough guy picture. We had originally taken one while smiling, then he said we had to take another one--no smiles.

Home improvement

One of Seth's fellow photographers gave us his table this week! We used to have a circular table that squeezed three people in our kitchen; this new table will hold 4 comfortably--plus it has extra leaves! It's ideal for our situation...if we really wanted to, we could even pull it out into the living room for extravagant hosting.


We moved our circular table to the front window, snagged a thrift store tablecloth, and made a new shrine-like area! We're going to put some pictures of friends and family and make it a memory corner.


Our kitchen also has a new microwave holder/shelving unit. When I first moved it, we barely had any room. Now, we have more room than we know what to do with! We're working on getting some quality cooking supplies, so we hope to fill up the extra space with those. (and maybe junk food...)

Famous alumni

Dan, Krista, and I made the front page of Hope's alumni page of the Hope/Calvin game!

I wrote the word "fart" on a progress report

Yesterday was the coldest day in Philadelphia this year: 7 degrees, with a wind chill of negative 4. What did I do? Purchased an air conditioning unit for my room this spring. I got a great deal on the Maytag unit from Craigslist. Only used for a year, the couple using it is moving to Boston with central air, and it's in really good condition (plus it has an actual temperature gauge!). The guy asked for $50 for the unit and a brand new knife set. Since Seth and I needed one, he chipped in a few bucks for the knives, and I bought the knife set. Not too shabby!

Speaking of deals, here's a Coldstone coupon for free! It expires at the end of February.

Recently, I've really gotten into a website called StealDeals.Net. They have the web's best coupons posted each day throughout the day. The temptation is to spend unnecessary money to "save" so much. Fortunately, I think I have been able to hold myself back from

Tomorrow a bunch of students from my school are going to the opera Porgy and Bess. I get to go too! We had a grant pay for the buses, and the opera company is allowing us to come see the dress rehearsal for free. The kids have been staying after school a few days to listen to parts of the opera, read the story, and get familar with the story before the opera hits. I'll have to do the same thing! I've never seen a live opera before...the closest I've had was watching La Boheme for my First Year Seminar at Hope as a freshman. Should be a great experience!

So, I wrote on two students' progress reports that they had been making farting noises in my computer class. (yes, that means I used the word "fart" on a progress report). After reading that a few weeks ago, my principal--who's a nun, remember--came up to me today and asked me if they had improved their behavior. I said I haven't had a problem since progress reports. She was glad, but suggested that if I had any additional problems, that I should assign them a book report of this book. I laughed out loud (my class was in the room), but I laughed even harder when she told me that one of her close friends had given her that book for Christmas! That whole situation made my day. I love Sister Owen more every day.

Seth and I have recently made some major changes to our house furniture. I'll try to take pictures tomorrow! Let's just say that our house is looking more like a home. =)

Unbearable

The Bears started out so valiantly in tonight's Super Bowl. Then, Payton Manning dissected their defense with short passes with the skill of a surgeon. It was disappointing. Even the commercials didn't live up to expectations! Sarah and I watched the game with friends from Jefferson, most of whom cheered for the Bears for various reasons. My $20 Urlacher jersey didn't quite do the trick, as the Colts enjoyed Rex Grossman living up to his namesake.


The retreat this weekend, however, was wonderful. I'll have to write more later.

As we Chicago sports fans like to say, "there's always next year."

My first jersey

I purchased the first jersey of my life last week: a Chicago Bears Brian Urlacher 54 jersey from eBay. It arrived yesterday with great fanfare! I was pretty excited. Sure, it may be missing the little "official NFL" sticker from the front, but I'm okay with that. It still looks real!

Bring on the Colts...Urlacher and I are ready!

Serving at Liberti

This Sunday, one of the pastors at Liberti asked me to help greeting people. Melanie and I were assigned to bulletin duty. Seth snapped a picture of me, and here it is!

What timing!

I stayed home from school on Monday and Tuesday this week fighting my cold/virus infection. Gratefully, the snot has been coming less, cough dissipating, and energy levels continue to rise. After going to school for a half day on Wednesday (I only have morning classes, and my principal allowed me to go home early to sleep for the afternoon), I felt tired. But then the news of the day came through: we wouldn't have school on Thursday! It turns out that a pipe burst under the street and our resource room in the basement was flooded. The plumber needed to shut down the water to our school building, so we don't have school today! The timing couldn't be better. There's actually a chance we won't have school tomorrow either, so we'll see.

Last night Sarah and I went bowling with some friends from our home group at North Bowl Philly. I've decided that it's my second favorite place in Philadelphia--only behind Franklin Fountain! Bowling there is super cheap on Wednesday and Sunday nights ($2 special...each for shoes, per game, tator tots, or drinks). We took advantage of the offer! Somehow, I found my bowling stroke and had the best game I've ever had in my life! It's nice to showoff for your girlfriend every now and then. =)

This weekend Sarah, Seth, Melanie, some other Liberti folk and I are going on a retreat to paradise. No, not Wrigley Field, to Paradise, PA! The retreat's purpose is to learn more about Liberti--it's purpose, mission, people, and goals--as well as simply spending quality time with new friends. I'm excited for it! Sarah has wanted to go for well over a year now, but her exam schedule (and Michigan visits) always seemed to get in the way. I'm sure there will be pictures and stories to share when we return.